In the use of fastener-drivers (hereafter a “driver” or “drivers”), users often seek ways to ensure that the fastener remains fixed to the driver. More specifically, at many times, a user desires to use only one hand to apply pressure to the fastener as a result of the desired placement or location of the fastener. In situations where the desired placement of the fastener is on a vertical work surface or a work surface below the driver, the user must usually hold the fastener against the driver to ensure that it does not fall off the driver during positioning. Alternatively, the user must use steady hand movements while placing the fastener against the work surface. While some fasteners or drivers (such as a ROBERTSON™ driver and fastener) have specific surfaces or properties allowing the fastener and driver to remain gently attached to one another, the fastener may often fall off the driver if a critical angle is reached, the user inadvertently touches another surface with the fastener or as a result of unsteady hand or body movements by the user.
In the past, one solution to this problem has been the use of magnets within the driver which can increase the relative strength of connection between the driver and fastener. However, as a magnet requires that a corresponding fastener is magnetic, magnet tip drivers are limited to use with magnetic fasteners. Magnet tip drivers also have a tendency to pick up stray metal filings in and around work projects that must be periodically cleaned from the driver. Still further, magnet tip drivers are not suitable around magnet- and electrically sensitive areas where live wires may be employed. A magnet tip driver may also be unnecessarily bulky thereby limiting its use in certain applications.
Other past solutions have included screwstarters and screw guides. Screwstarters utilize either a spring-loaded or manually actuated multi-sectioned bit to apply opposing pressures to opposite sides of a fastener. However, these systems are limited to either a specific fastener style or a relatively small number of fastener styles. Moreover, these systems are relatively expensive compared to a single component driver. Screw guides are spring loaded rigid sleeves that are biased over the tip of a driver and that retract up and over the shaft as a fastener is advanced into a surface. These systems are generally limited to a particular size fastener head and are not interchangeable between different bits.
The prior art reveals that the use of flexible sleeves that engage with the shaft of a screwdriver have been proposed in various forms. While various embodiments of fastener holding devices are described within the prior art, the prior art does not disclose a fastener holding system that permits the use of a single fastener retaining system that can be effectively used with a wide-range of fastener head diameters and that ensures the effective capturing, centering and release of fasteners within the fastener holding device.
A review of the prior art reveals that such a system has not been previously disclosed. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,245,446, 4,221,429, 4,936,171, 3,351,111, 5,029,498, 1,126,370 each describe various screw holding devices that may be used to retain or hold a screw against a screwdriver. However, none of these references provide a system that enables the effective centering of a fastener within the system that ensures the effective centering of the fastener within the system or that are readily adapted for use with screwdriver shafts of different cross-sections.